All Topics  
Diatonic button accordion

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Diatonic button accordion
 
 
  Topics Diatonic button accordion Topic Home

A diatonic button accordion or melodeon is a type of button accordion
Button accordion

A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side Keyboard instrument consists of a series of buttons rather than piano-style keys....
 where the melody
Melody

In music, a melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity....
-side keyboard is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys
Key (music)

In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a certain key, such as in the key of C or in the key of F-sharp....
 (sometimes only one). The bass side usually contains the principal chords
Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
 of the instrument's key and the root notes of those chords.

e is some geographic disagreement over the terms button accordion and melodeon.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Diatonic button accordion'
Start a new discussion about 'Diatonic button accordion'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A diatonic button accordion or melodeon is a type of button accordion
Button accordion

A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side Keyboard instrument consists of a series of buttons rather than piano-style keys....
 where the melody
Melody

In music, a melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity....
-side keyboard is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys
Key (music)

In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a certain key, such as in the key of C or in the key of F-sharp....
 (sometimes only one). The bass side usually contains the principal chords
Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
 of the instrument's key and the root notes of those chords.

Melodeon

There is some geographic disagreement over the terms button accordion and melodeon. In England a bisonoric (different note on push and draw of the bellows) button accordion with one, two or three rows of buttons on the right hand (melody) side is likely to be called a melodeon. In Ireland a melodeon refers only to one-row instruments, while in the southern United States even these are called accordions.

The available notes on the melody side are based on different keys. For example, you could have a 1-row melodeon in the key of G. This would give you the notes G/A - B/C - D/E - F#/G spread over 4 buttons. Commonly used melodeons nowadays include the D/G box with 2 rows, used especially in English traditional music (particularly for the accompaniment of social and Morris dancing), while instruments in G/C, C/F or G/C/F (with three treble rows of buttons), are widely used in France, Italy and central/eastern Europe. Irish traditional musicians generally favour instruments in B/C or C#/D. Because the keys of the latter are a semitone apart, all the notes of the chromatic scale are in theory available (unlike the D/G box or others where the interval is a fourth). There are many variations on these layouts, with 2˝ row melodeons, accidentals and various options which players sometimes customise to suit their own requirements.

The two-row melodeon is apparently limited by being able to play only in its two given major keys - e.g. D and G, and their associated minor keys of B and E. However some tunes in the major keys of E and A can also be managed, and in practice most British and Irish traditional music, and north American music with these roots, strays little from this limited set of keys. The vast majority of the traditional repertoire can be played using just fourteen notes available on all two-row melodeons.

Well known melodeon players currently recording include English musicians John Spiers
John Spiers

John Spiers is an English diatonic button accordion, concertina and bandone?n player. He was born in Birmingham. His father is a Morris dancer....
 (of Spiers and Boden
Spiers and Boden

Spiers and Boden are an England folk music duo. John Spiers plays melodeon, concertina and other squeezeboxes, while Jon Boden plays fiddle, sings, and stamps out the rhythm on a piece of board....
 and Bellowhead
Bellowhead

Bellowhead are an England folk music band brought together by John Spiers and Jon Boden. The band plays traditional English dance tunes and songs, but in a funky, contemporary and unique style aided by a four-piece brass section....
), John Kirkpatrick, Andy Cutting
Andy Cutting

Andy Cutting is an English folk musician and composer. Born 18 March 1969 in Harrow, London, he plays diatonic button accordion and has had instruments made by Castagnari to his own specification....
 (of Blowzabella
Blowzabella

Blowzabella are an English band who play bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and an array of acoustic instruments to produce an inimitable, driving, drone -based sound influenced by British and European traditional dance music....
) and Tim van Eyken
Tim Van Eyken

Tim van Eyken is an England folk musician of Belgium descent, performing on the melodeon and guitar.Van Eyken first started playing penny whistle after seeing James Galway on television....
. There are also many current or recently deceased non-English players whose recordings can be easily located outside their home countries, including Marc Perrone (France), Ricardo Tesi (Italy), Martin O'Connor (Ireland), Bobby Gardiner Ireland, Sharon Shannon (Ireland), Marc Savoy (Louisiana Cajun), Yves Lambert (Quebec, Canada), Kepa Junkera (Basque), John Delafose (Louisiana "zydeco"), Boozoo Chavis (Louisiana "zydeco") and Flaco Jimenez (United States "Tex-Mex" musician).

Polka box


Steirische Harmonika
Steirische Harmonika

The Steirische Harmonika is a type of Accordion#Construction diatonic button accordion important to the Volksmusik of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, the German state of Bavaria, and the Italian province of Bolzano-Bozen....
 Picture of Steirische Harmonika or Slovenian
Music of Slovenia

The music of Slovenia is closely related to Austrian, Istrian and Croatian because of its common history and Alps and littoral culture. In the minds of many Slovenes and foreigners, Slovenian folk music means a form of polka that is still popular today, especially among expatriates and their descendants in North America....
-style box is very popular in the Alpine region of Europe. This type of box was also made in the U.S. by Anton Mervar
Anton Mervar

Anton Mervar was a manufacturer of Accordion#Button accordions.He completed his apprenticeship at Lubas & Sohn in Slovenia in 1912, after which he moved to the United States....
 Button Accordion Manufacturer (1885-1942), inducted on November 30, 1991. The main differences are the use of bigger, deeper bass reeds (Helicon reeds) and the single unisonoric note in each RH row but one.

Hybrids

Most diatonic button accordions (e.g.: melodeon) are bisonoric, meaning each button produces two notes: one when the bellows
Bellows

A bellows is a device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location. Basically, a bellows is a deformable container which has an outlet nozzle....
 is compressed, another while it is expanded; other instruments (e.g.: Garmon) are unisonoric, with each producing the same note regardless of bellows direction; still others (e.g.: schwyzerörgeli
Schwyzerörgeli

The Schwyzeroergeli is a type of diatonic button accordion used in Swiss folk music. The name derives from the town/canton of Schwyz where it was developed....
, trikitixa
Trikitixa

Trikitixa or eskusoinu is a two-row Basque music diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a perfect fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons....
) have a combination of the two types of action.

Repertoire


Classical


  • Dances from a New England Album, 1856 for orchestra
    Orchestra

    An orchestra is an Musical ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an theatre of ancient Greece reserved for the Greek chorus....
     by William Bergsma
    William Bergsma

    William Laurence Bergsma was an American composer.After studying piano with his mother, a former opera singer, and then the viola, Bergsma moved on to study composition; his most significant teachers were Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers....
     includes parts for melodeon (movements I-III) and harmonium
    Harmonium

    A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ or pipe organ. Sound is produced by air, supplied by foot-operated or hand-operated bellows, being blown through sets of Free reed aerophone, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion....
     (movement IV).


See also

  • Cajun accordion
    Cajun accordion

    A Cajun accordion also known as a squeezebox is single-row diatonic button accordion used for playing Cajun music....
  • Chromatic button accordion
    Chromatic button accordion

    A chromatic button accordion is a type of button accordion where the melody-side keyboard consists of rows of buttons arranged chromatically. The bass -side keyboard is usually the Stradella bass system or one of the various free-bass systems....
  • Piano accordion
    Piano accordion

    A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or reed organ. It is more similar to that of an organ, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"?coined by Guido Deiro in 1910?has remained the popular nomenclature....


External links